The vase permits the viewer to experience a three-dimensional physicality. Rather than seeing a flat image upon a wall, the vase encourages the viewer to explore its surfaces. Sculpture is an obvious example of a visual medium which maps out every curve and contour of the human body as a surface. The sculpture needs to be viewed from all angles. Generally speaking, the sculpture is not small enough to hold and is most often a public medium. The vase however, is small enough to hold and draw to the body, and is destined for the private relational context. This physicality and contextual intimacy between viewer and vase is exploited by erotica.
Regardless of the image, the vase had to interact with the viewer when in use. For example, the cup had to be held in the hand and brought to the mouth when sipping wine and touched by the lips. The krater had to be visited each time the drinker wanted more wine. Used in the home, tavern or communal drinking context, the vase functioned as an extension of the body. An artist interested in depicting erotica would not have to stretch their imagination to make a connection between the physicality of the vase, and the human body. Features of the vase were manipulated into physical attributes, even in terminology, as Lissarrague explains; “Just as we speak of vases in anatomical terms – neck, belly, shoulder, foot, lip – the Greeks spoke of a vase’s
48
‘ears’ (ota, its handles), head (kephale), face (prosopon), and lips (cheile)”.49
Some scholars have suggested that erotica painted on vases was representative of sexual practices at the time.50 However, this approach fails to place sufficient distance between the image, and social realities. Erotica and pornography are not illustrative of new or different sexual practices; they are in fact a representational practice, constructions of desire used to excite the viewer.51 Here, discussion departs from an approach based upon the meaning of representation and society, and adopts an understanding of the vase – its images and three-dimensionality – as an appendix to the human body. Two types of image is considered and one type of manipulated form in an attempt to emphasise the erotic physicality of the vase.
The Pointed Amphora
A red-figure squat lekythos, now in New York, is an example of the possibilities of imbued eroticism in basic images. In the previous chapter, we saw how iconographic vessels carried an imbued meaning, resulting from their common use in particular images. In this case, discussion focuses upon the iconographic pointed amphora, which has erotic connotations. The New York lekythos depicts a single pointed amphora leaning against a prop, with an ivy garland suggesting festivity and symposia (fig.5.5).52 The lekythos is miniature sized, measuring only 7.4cms high, containing a very small amount of liquid, suggesting use as an offering, rather than a practice vessel. The image is as figuratively basic as the Copenhagen pyxis which depicts a single krater (fig.4.1), evoking consumption and desire.53 The New York lekythos similarly depicts a vessel with strong visual connections to consumption and symposia. Iconographic pointed amphorae are frequently depicted being carried by youths at a komos, discarded in a communal drinking scene, or being drunk from by a single figure.54 The viewing experience of this lekythos draws upon the viewer’s understanding that the iconographic pointed amphora embodies practices of consumption. In this case, the pointed amphora represents the end of a night of consumption; desire all spent up and energies depleted.
Further examples of the iconographic pointed amphora allude to or represent desire.55 A
49 Lissarrague (1990) 56. 50
Sutton (1992) 3 and Kilmer (1993) 1.
51 Kappler (1986) 2. 52
New York, Gallatin 13227.
53 Copenhagen, National Museum 953, see previous chapter for a discussion.
54 See following for examples of pointed amphora in drinking scenes; Wurzburg, Universitat, Martin von
Wagner Mus.: HA425, Brussels, Musees Royaux: R264, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts: 95.27.
55
red-figure tondo on a black-figure cup exemplifies the most erotic use for a pointed amphora by transforming its physicality into an aspect of the human body. The cup, now in Palermo, painted by Skythes in the last quarter of the sixth century B.C, renders a satyr inserting his penis into a pointed amphora (fig.5.6).56 A kalos-inscription evokes the beauty of an Epilykos. The name Epilykos is found in nineteen kalos-inscriptions, and fourteen of these appear on vases by Skythes.57 Evidently, this family was well known in Athens, and had a personal connection with this painter. However, the association between the kalos-inscription and the image is ambiguous, or at the very least, humorous. Although the tondo is fragmentary, the tail of the satyr stands out as he holds the pointed amphora at its pointed end to simulate sex, substituting for an orifice. The viewer may well have been surprised and most definitely amused when drinking the last few sips of wine from the cup as the tondo has no obvious connection with the exterior scene of winged women, perhaps Nikes. A second later example of a satyr and a pointed amphora is less explicitly erotic. A red-figure oinochoe, now in Sarajevo, by the Talos painter and made in the last quarter of the fifth century B.C, depicts the figure of a satyr sitting on top of a pointed amphora, apparently riding it (fig.5.7).58 The painted scene surrounding the mouth of the oinochoe depicts Hermes watching the quarrel between Heracles and Apollo over the Delphic tripod, which sits on top of the satyr, on top of the pointed amphora. Although his penis is not inserted into the mouth of the pointed amphora, his posture and gritted teeth suggest excitement. In Lissarrague’s words; “The satyr’s amphora is no longer a vase but a vehicle, and the statue becomes the prop for a vase.”59 A third example, as explicit as the Palermo cup, depicts a flute-girl sitting on the pointed end of a pointed amphora, and represents one of the only surviving examples of a human using a vase as a sexual substitute (fig.5.8).60 On the tondo of the cup, the flute-girl balances on the mouth end of a pointed amphora on the floor, her toes press against the edges of the scene and she holds two flutes, one in each hand. She is completely naked, except for two bracelets on her wrists and she wears her hair down with a garland in the front. Her pleasure in using the pointed end is not outspoken, but her posture and her gaze out towards the viewer is an invitation to imagine.
Other examples are more subtle in their erotic content. A red-figure cup, now in Orvieto, by
56
Palermo, Museo Nazionale V651.
57 For a detailed discussion of Epilykos kalos-inscriptions, see Shapiro (1983) 305-310. 58 Sarajevo, National Museum: 654.
59
Lissarrague (1990) 53.
60
the Antiphon painter, dated between 490-475 B.C, depicts a naked woman lying down and lifting a pointed amphora as large as her torso to her mouth to drink (fig.5.9).61 The woman is propped up by a cushion and lifts the pointed amphora as two men stand either side of her and watch her drink. Due to the fragmentary nature of the scene, it is difficult to tell whether both male figures are dressed the same, but it seems that both wear nothing except a loosely draped cloak and walking stick – the dress of a citizen. The male behind her has an erection. The scene on side A of the cup again depicts two draped youths with a female between them, this time they are engaged in more direct sexual activity (not illustrated). Although the use of the pointed amphora in this scene is not explicitly erotic, the combination of alcohol, voyeurism and the female bringing a heavy vessel to her mouth, along with the side A, imbues the use of the pointed amphora with a physicality that cannot help being eroticised.
Several cups with single individuals, satyrs and youths, bending or lying alongside a pointed amphora, rely upon the viewer to ask; what is going to happen next? For example, a red- figure cup, now in Kassel, bythe Group of Adria B 300, dated to c.510 B.C, depicts a lone youth lying beside a pointed amphora (fig.5.10).62 His legs are open to expose his genitals and he holds both his leg and touches the pointed amphora, his head leans to the side as he gazes out at the viewer. This subtle eroticism implies the possibilities of what comes next. A final example works on a similar premise of suggestion; a red-figure askos, unattributed, dated between 450-400 B.C, depicts two scenes of a satyr and a pointed amphora (fig.5.11).63 Askoi are small round vessels, used to carry wine, much like animal skins. The two satyrs have different postures, (perhaps the same one in different stages) one satyr props up the full pointed amphora, whilst the second lies it down as he repositions himself. Many surviving examples of askoi depict an animal pursuing its prey, in this case the satyr has caught his prey, but the viewer is uncertain what he intends to do now he has finished the wine. The possible uses for the pointed amphora do not end when the wine runs out.
The physicality of the pointed amphora – its narrow mouth, handled neck, pointed end and round shape – lends itself to substitution for the human body. The possible associations of an iconographic pointed amphora cannot be prescribed to a straightforward interpretation. The viewer
61 Orvieto Museo Civico 585. 62
Kassel, Staatliche Museen Kassel, Antikensammlung: T504.
63
would have either seen images which illustrate the erotic possibilities of the pointed amphora, and be fully aware of its suggestive physicality, which can act as an amusing and arousing substitute for both a penis and vagina. However, conventions of representation mean that as far as I have been able to find, no representations survive of a male figure explicitly using a pointed amphora as a penis or vagina substitute. Perhaps this behaviour goes beyond the boundaries of the representational. The viewer could imagine how the male would use the pointed amphora, but to do it, or even imagine doing it is far too debased. The satyr has no such qualms in inverting conventions, they are meaningless to him. The female does not understand them. Something of the erotic physicality of the pointed amphora and its connection to dominant male desire goes beyond representation, something hidden but acknowledged – a transgression.
The Phallus-Footed Cup
The need to touch a cup and draw it close to the body gave it an increased intimacy with the viewer/user. No other vessel requires contact with the lips. When used, the cup became an extension of the body, or an attribute of the body’s physicality. In the case of the iconographic pointed amphora, the physicality of the vase was sexualised; the phallus-footed cup however, expounds a very different from of physicality. It performed the reverse. Rather than having features that encourage sexual desire, the physicality of the phallus-footed cup was altered to incorporate human anatomy. This change in the features of the cup acknowledged the viewer’s erotic experience derived by touch.
During the earlier period of black-figure painting, painters occasionally incorporated human anatomy, notably the penis, into a physical feature of the vase. This practice in genital additions to vases occurs in the Geometric period through Greece, noticeably in East Greece.64 Focusing particularly on the phallus-footed cup, this type of vase has survived in several examples from the black-figure period and a couple in red-figure. It takes two forms; as a phallus-footed cup, when the foot of the cup is replaced by the form of male genitals, and secondly as a figure or plastic vase, which takes the full shape of the male genitals. This alteration had an important effect upon the relationship between the vase and user, as explained by Lissarrague; “It then becomes difficult to call such an object a mere vessel. Its practical function is subsumed by the anatomical illusion it
64
engenders, and in bringing it to his mouth the drink is explicitly drawn into an erotic game.”65
A black-figure phallus-footed cup, now in Oxford, attributed to the Manner of Lysippides, dated to 520 B.C, and famously named the “curious eye cup” by Boardman, is our first example.66 Before we consider these painted sides, the size of the cup is worth our attention. Measuring from 12.5cms in height and 34cms in diameter, the Oxford cup is an impressive size. This transforms the phallus-foot into an exaggerated life size. The cup depicts satyrs heads between eyes surrounding the outside (fig.5.12a) and a sympotic scene, edged by vines and surrounding a gorgoneion in the tondo (fig.5.12b). The large eyes, almost a hand span, land either side of the mask or head of a satyr, who looks straight out towards the viewer. It is almost as though the cup becomes a mask for the viewer to wear. 67 The gorgoneion in the tondo reinforces this frontal facing gaze. The terrifying mask of the gorgon, its wide smiling and open mouth, its tongue protruding, addresses the unconscious fears of man; “in the gaze of a gorgon who renders a man frigid as stone and unmans him”.68 The fear of the gorgon is the fear of desire. And so, by demanding that the viewer confronts the mask which provokes fear, the fear dissipates and viewer can continue to enjoy desire and consumption, which the surrounding sympotic scene suggests. The sympotic group are reclined and each is engaged in different activities, one drinker in particular is interacting with a very small youth, who personifies the desire of the drinkers.
Interpretations of this cup have emphasised the Dionysian and apotropaic role of the phallus.69 Indeed, the phallus did not always have to mean penis. This Oxford cup must be considered in this way. However, to suggest that the phallus-footed cup had no sexual dimension is to ignore the realities of its physicality. Osborne suggests that the missing foot, replaced by a phallus, mirrors the symposiasts in the tondo, who also have no feet, suggesting that they have a penis instead.70 The phallus-foot supports the cup when not held by the viewer, but when it is held, the viewer is encouraged to touch and grope the phallus, as though it was a man. Homosexual intercourse is represented through a tight visual language. The phallus-foot makes a joke of this impulse. The eyes and phallus foot combine to emphasise touch and sight, scopic and sexual
65 Lissarrague (1990) 56. 66
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum: 1974.344, Boardman (1976) 281.
67 Lissarrague (1990) 57 and Boardman (1976) 288.
68 Howe (1956) 221, see this article for brief and interesting discussion about the Gorgon. 69
Boardman (1976) 288 and Cohen (2006) 258.
70
impulses, and reduces the human male to an attribute to the power of sexual desire.71 In Cohen’s interpretation, she concedes this point; “This cup’s foot would surely have heightened the eroticised atmosphere of a male drinking party”.72
A black-figure phallus-footed cup, now in Paris, dated between 525-475 B.C, draws together the representation of erotica, and a tactile erotic experience (fig.5.13).73 Similar in size to the Oxford cup, the Paris cup measures 12cms in height and 33cms in diameter, making it one of the larger cups produced in Athens. Surrounding the outside of the cup in a continuous scene, twelve couples and one single figure engage in various forms of sexual activity. The figures are clearly differentiated by gender, the skin of the females is white, and the males dark. Vineyards surround the couples, suggesting both an outside context, and a connection with wine and Dionysus. Evidently, this orgy is taking place outside the polis context. The female body is used here to define the masculinity of men, who enjoy sex homosocially. However, this objectification of the female is not without their willing self-surrender; the posture of the females certainly suggests pleasure. Both genders are objectified in the Paris cup, as the males are trapped in an “endless loop of desire”, pursuing the female body, only to possess it temporarily.74 Being ‘grabbed by the balls’ is literalised in the phallus-foot, encouraging the user to fondle an embodiment of their desire. In the tondo, the gorgoneion is surrounded by a Dionysian scene, involving satyrs, maenads, mules and Dionysus himself (not illustrated). Dionysus is seated, holding up a rhyton. The other figures seem to be processing towards him. Judging by the two figures on mules, this could be a depiction of the Return of Hephastos.75 The god was finally persuaded to return to Olympus but only once Dionysus completely intoxicated him. The combination of unbridled sex and exhaustive consumption creates an object which represents a surrender of will, and a physically which encourages this through deep bowl and phallus-foot.
A black-figure plastic aryballos, now in Boston, and dated to around 550 B.C, takes the physical form of a phallus (fig.5.14).76 The vessel is signed by the potter Priapos, evidently a comic name. At its mouth is a depiction of a homosexual ‘courtship scene’, the erastes is reaching towards the unusually large erection of the eromenos and touching under his chin, a prevalent gesture in
71
Frontisi-Ducroux (1996) 93.
72 Cohen (2006) 258. 73
Paris, Musée du Louvre: CP9681.
74 Stewart (1997) 162, 150-162.
75 See Berlin, lost: F2052, in Stewart (1997) fig, 99 for a similar example from an earlier period combines erotic
activity with Dionysus, a symposium, the Gorgoneion, the eyes and the phallus-foot.
76
homosexual scenes (not illustrated).77 The erection of the eromenos, regardless of size, is a significant departure from conventional scenes of homosexuality, and the nude male body. This image suggests a reversal of roles, with the eromenos by the erastes, and unrestrained homosexuality. The vessel itself is tied, both by use and meaning, to the homosocial environment of the gymnasium. Athletes would oil themselves with liquid from the aryballos. Iconographically, the aryballos is connected to athletics and homosexuality. For example, a red-figure cup by the Persuasion Painter uses aryballoi to reflect an increasingly intense homosexuality.78 The physicality